Back Home Tales
by Warringer
Summary: One Shots set in the Back Home universe
1. Chapter 1

Back Home – Tales

by Warringer

Birth of a Legend

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They called the planet Home. Or at least that is the translation of their worlds name into Intercosmo, just like their races name can be translated into 'The Race'. I suppose that are aptly names, much like 'human' or 'Earth', through the name is slowly cycled out of the media and replaced by Terra.

High above me, in orbit the massive battle between a rather large Doranian fleet and the GDI invasion fleet is still going on and my sensors are counting the massive energy concentrations of the single vessels of both sides and equally massive detonations when a ship is destroyed.

I have touched down about five kilometers west of a small city on Home and about fifty kilometers east from the capital city of Home. Most of the invasion troops were going to touch down there to take control of the planet after about a thousand years of Doranian Occupation and Slavery.

My sensors tell me that there are about a hundred thousand life signs in the city west of me.

I and four of my brothers have been deployed before the actual invasion to prevent any Doranian attempt for intervention from the Doranians. I have encountered some ground based fire, but as one of the prototypes of the BBL-01 Super Heavy Tank, I was more than able to survive the orbital drop, reentry and the ground fire, while retaliating in kind, destroying more than one of the ground based heavy weapons with ma ship grade Particle Beam turrets.

I turned the head of my Avatar towards my commander, Captain David Marcus. He was a good friend of mine and we had been on several invasions of Doranian occupied worlds.

"We should move away from the city," he said," We can't endanger the people there."

I nodded and with a short command the four massive threads of my body began to move, slowly moving my 37kton body and accelerating it towards 50 kilometers per hour.

While accelerating, I noted a contact on my sensors. A Doranian Cruiser, from the signature it was a Quantum One vessel that had already been at three other invasions, with several involvements of BBL-01, moved out of orbit and into the atmosphere.

I narrowed my eyes as I followed its course, interpolating several possible courses of the Cruiser towards the surface. The course with the highest possibility was towards me and the city.

"We get company," I noted dryly." A Doranian Cruiser leaves orbit to intercept us."

David blinked as he looked at me.

"I'm coming to a full stop," I continued as I cut power to my drive motors and drew power from them as they worked as generators.

Again David blinked and looked at my Avatar as if it had grown a second head.

"Target acquired, firing."

My three primary Particle Beam turrets and sixteen secondary Ion repeater turrets opened fire at the cruiser, while I loaded high explosive shells into my three 155mm railgun howitzers.

"Alex, get moving," he said as my shots found their mark, lingering over the Cruisers shields, dropping its strength.

"They will strafe me and than destroy the city if I move."

I winced slightly as the Cruiser returned fire, even through its weapons dropped in power while going through the atmosphere, unlike mine that were designed to be fired inside the atmosphere.

"They will get the city if you don't move."

I knew that he would say that and had already prepared a number of simulations that were now displayed in the main screen of my command center.

"They will do it either way," I noted." And if I move I can bring my entire weaponry to bear."

"And they will get a sitting duck to shoot at."

I gave him a look.

"That is a risk I'm willing to take."

He glared at me while I continued to fire at the currently 100 kilometer high cruiser and it returned fire. I was doing more damage than the cruiser as its shield was already strained from reentry and knowing the rather flimsy hulls of galactic ships, they wouldn't survive reentry without shields.

I on the other hand was more than capable of surviving reentry without much more than light scorching to my hull.

David stood up and glared at my avatar.

"Get moving," he repeated," That is an order."

And it is a good thing that me and my brethren are not bound to the Three Laws, but rather to a moral guideline.

"I'm sorry, Dave. But I can't do that."

"Alexander..."

My body was shaken as several plasma bursts penetrated my weakened shields and slammed into my Carbonat armored hull.

I stood my ground as the Cruiser was getting close enough for the next weapon to engage. Four of my vertical launch systems opened and four HyStrike missiles streaked out, each with a 1kt fusion warhead designed to be used against fortifications, guided by my targeting routines.

"I can't."

David breathed in deep as the VLS cycled to load the next HyStrike missiles.

"Alexander, Command Override Sigma..."

He wasn't able to continue trying to use my command override code as my avatar punched him in the gut with enough force to drive the air out of his lungs and causing him to double over.

"I'm sorry, Dave. But my priorities are clear."

The last simulation had shown that the Cruiser was most likely to detonate in mid air. Correction, it was already detonating in mid air. It started in the front of the Cruiser as another of my salvos smalled into the frontal hull and ignited the hydrogen storage of the main weapons. Secondary explosion riddled through the hull and caused large patches of its hull to fall away from the descending mass of the cruiser.

It had enough momentum to continue with its course and impact into the ground just about a hundred meters in front of me. And the flat trajectory would cause it to slide over the ground and through the city behind me if I would move.

"I was an honor to serve with you," I said and I closed my eyes.

With a quick punch into Davids face, carefully not to break anything, he was unconscious.

I continued to fire at the descending hull of the Cruiser. Trying to chip as much from its bulk as possible. All my VLS opened up now and together with my last reload of HyStike missiles twelve M26 missiles launched towards the hulk.

I took David into my avatars arms carefully and placed his body into the single emergency transmitter. Closing the door to the transmitter, I saluted to my commander before engaging it, teleporting him onto the Pasteur, a hospital ship a lightyear distant from the battle of Ceti Alpha 2.

Continuing to update my simulations, I notes that there wasn't much I could do to reduce the hull of the cruiser to small debris. I could only do one thing.

I closed my eyes again, as I reversed the polarity of my antigravity system, raiding the gravity gradient that gripped me by four time Earth gravity, the maximum possible for it, trying to anchor myself as best as I could while waiting for the cruiser to impact in front of me. Several million tons would have to be stopped before they could destroy the city behind me, seven kilometers distant.

"Lo, there do I see my father," I begin to say.

My VLS run dry as the cruiser drops to four kilometers hight.

"Lo, there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers."

My Particle Beam turrets and Ion Repeaters continue to fire as it comes closer, the massive drag of the atmosphere on the open and burning hull slowing the hulk of the cruiser as it falls in its flat trajectory.

"Lo, there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning."

I stop firing as it drops to a hundred meter. My continuous fire has reduced its mass and hulk down to about seventy percent of its original weight, still weighting several million tons.

"Lo, they do call to me."

I idly note that my last simulation is a little off as the burning hulk slams into the ground about two hundred meters in front of me, boring itself several dozen meters into the soft soil.

"They bid me take my place on Asgard in the halls of Valhalla,"

The momentum of the million tons of spaceship drags it forward as the hull hits the ground rock and I reroute all my energy into the shields and my drive motors.

"Where the brave may live forever."

I haven't been moved yet as the hull of the cruiser impacts into my forward shields, the massive kinetic energy causing quantum feedbacks to run through it as it tries to eat away the energy before collapsing. Red lights race through my sensory network as my frontal armor, five meters Carbonat-VIII bucking and ripping open like a soda can beneath my threads.

I can feel how I begin to tilt upwards and my rear is pressed deeper into the soft soil before jamming into the ground rock not even ten meters beneath the surface.

My gamble, my try to save the city is going to be successful, according to my last simulation, as I will act as stopper for the hull of the Doranian Cruiser.

I am designed after the fictional design of a BOLO MK XXXIII, now I will die like a BOLO MK XXXIII. It is now **1132074784.**

I wonder if there is a live after death for someone like me?

Only one thing left to do.

"For the honor of the Regiment!"


	2. Chapter 2

Back Home – Tales

by Warringer

Ram them 'til they give up

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He laid back and fixed his eyes up towards the ceiling of the room.

How had had he ended up in all this again?

He shook his head clear for a moment, trying to ignore the pain from his right hand as the painkillers slowly lost their effectivity.

In the end it was all his father, who was responsible. Damn drunk asshole...

To get away from him he had left his home town as soon as he had gone through high school, fully intending to get into the Military to get as far away from him as possible. In the end it had gotten him to Navy. Hey, it got him far away from his father and he got to see the world.

He still didn't quite know why the captain of his first tour recommended him for the US Naval Academy, but he had ended up there, getting good enough notes to get through it and leave as a fresh Ensign. And right onto a tour on the _Ticonderoga_ as part of _Enterprise_'s escort.

They had just come back to Pearl as the damned cat stuck and the Big E was sunk in Pearl, hit by one of their asteroids.

Another tour on the _Ticonderoga_ had followed and got him a promotion to Lieutenant. And was send back to the USNA, where they were preparing him to be the commander of a space ship. The number of officers needed for the rapidly growing fleet of Earth had left the Navy to get as many of their officers to receive these rapid schoolings before they ended up stuck on a ship.

Fate wanted him to be the commanding officer of a Monsoon class Gunboat, the CCS-78, a nameless ship that allowed her crew to give her a name. However he had been stuck with a crew entirely made up of Nerds and Geeks of various strength, who had used the recruitment drive of the Navy to get themselves on a spaceship and try to be Kirk or Skywalker or whatsoever. At least his Chief Engineer was a rather normal guy, having been a reactor technician on a Los Angeles.

As such his ship had ended up with the name _A Highly Effective Pirate_.

And when the war with the Doranians had really gone into it hot phase, his ship had been in the middle, first as part of an escort for a group of Warlocks and than as part of the new _Enterprise_'s escort.

It had lost him his ship, but none of his crew and crushed his right hand into a bloody pulp...

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"Fuck," he swore out loud as his ship began to vibrate like a stuck gong.

"Ve lost the particle cannon, kapt'in," came the cry from the direction of the tactical console and he tried to ignore the fake Russian accent.

He stared at the display as if he could try to force the Doranian Cruiser in front of his ship to blow up by sheer force of will alone.

"Recycle the shield," he ordered with a strangely level voice that didn't show any sign of nervousness or panic.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he was glad for the actual belt harness that kept him secured to his seat, because the numerous hits and glances would have thrown him out of it at least seven times. At the same time he was glad for the distinct lack of exploding consoles.

That there was a flickering and static in the main holo display, but one could ignore it.

"Shields down, cycling," he heard the voice of this tactical officer, this time without the fake accent.

Again somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how the hell Andrew Wells had managed to end up on his ship. Or even managed to get the rank of an Ensign. During High School he had never shown any sign of wanting to become a sailor.

But at the same time, the War had changed much. And someone like Wells was unlikely to let such an opportunity slide.

But the more or less constant use of that fake accent and the strange look on his face every time he was called 'Mr. Wells' or 'Ensign Wells' was disturbing. It was as if he was getting of each time he was called that. So he had slowly moved to call him just 'Wells' or 'Andrew'.

On the screen the Cruiser was stuck by the Particle Cannon of one of CCS-78 squadron mates in one of the reactor sections and the entire stern hull simply bobbled up like boiling water, popping apart as plasma reacted with the metal of the hull and the atmosphere inside the hull, resulting in a massive fireball that left little more than the bow half of the ship intact. And even that just barely with the edges of the hull glowing and burning where the hull was sporting breaches large enough to leak both hydrogen from burst pipes and atmosphere from sealed compartments, sending rather short lived jets of flames into the emptiness of space.

Space around his ship wasn't much different. The entire battle had started rather orderly, but had quickly descended into a big free for all as the Doranians fought tooth and claw to defend the most important shipyards of their dying small empire.

But he and his ships had managed to stay close to the Big E as screening elements as the large Victory was taking care of the massive orbital installations, Dreadnoughts and few new Super Dreadnoughts the Doranians had managed to get together as defense.

All around them Particle Beams, Plasma Bolts and laser beams were standing in space, zigging back and forth between the fleets and installations. And his small Corvette was dodging with nearly the maneuverability of a fighter to not be targeted or hit. Fighters and Bombers were all around landing and again starting from the Big E and other Carrier vessels to do bombing runs on the surface of the planet or other orbital installations or even fight of the crude, but nonetheless rather effective Doranian fighters.

Brussels had been rather surprised when the Doranians had first used dedicated fighters, even through those were not much more than shuttles that had been armed to the teeth and fitted with powerful drives and maneuvering jets.

"Shield back up at eighty percent," Welles announced." O'Conner says that the generators have taken damage from that last hit. And fifty percent of the E-Web and shield projectors are down."

He grit his teeth. He knew that he the most sensitive thing would be to go and withdraw from the fight, but he would leave the Big E. Not while he remembered what had happened to the previous Big E.

"Frack," another voice piped in." Super Dreadnought at fifty klicks. They are going for the Big E."

His face whirled around and glared at the sensory display.

Doranian Super Dreadnoughts were a development the Doranians had pulled out of their hats when the Allies had first pushed forward into Doranian space. They were easily ten kilometers in diameter and looked even more like the ID4 city destroyers than the Cruisers and Dreadnoughts. To make things worse the Doranians had learned from the Earth ships.

The Super Dreadnoughts were equipped with dual layered shields and turreted weapons that allowed them to target anything around the ship. The massive plasma cannon as spinal mount was not helping matters either. One on one they were able to take on a Victory if the Victory could not use its main cannon.

"Display," he ordered.

The Super Dreadnought appeared on the screen. Battle damage, recent and not so recent was clearly visible and it was clear that this ship was not really in a way to really fight. It was most likely at Magna Doran to be repaired and now...

"Fuck," he swore again." They want to ram the Big E."

His glance went back to the tactical display. The battle was still ranging around them and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. The Doranians would loose no matter what when Magna Doran fell.

Glancing back and forth between the tactical and the normal display a plan began to form in his mind.

"O'Conner," he screamed out loud to his Chief Engineer as he pressed the button of the Internal Communication system." Get me everything you got in the drives and the reactor. Pour as many energy as you can into the shields and E-Web."

"What?" came the screamed response.

"Do it!"

He released the button and glared at his helm.

"Set course on that Super Dreadnought," he said as he glared at the Ensign at the helm.

"Are we..."

He grimaced and nodded grimly.

"Yes, we are."

Again he pressed the button of the Internal Communication system, this time on ship wide.

"We are gonna ram them 'til they give up."

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He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head slightly as he looked up to Rear Admiral DeConto.

The Admiral and former Chief of Naval Operations, smiled a little as he gave him a very elaborate letter. Before he had gotten a Purple Heart and several other medals as well as a promotion.

"Your new orders, Commander Harris."

He placed the letter on his bed and saluted to the Admiral.

"Thank you, sir."

DeConto smirked a little.

"You are getting a new Nadesico," he said," It might not be a cruiser, but it is defiantly a step up from a Monsoon. _USS Pathfinder_."

Alexander 'Xander' Levalle Harris nodded again and looked at the view port of his room on the _Pasteur_.

"My crew?" he asked.

DeConto laughed a little.

"I gather you want to keep them?"

He grinned a little.

"They may be nerds, but they are my nerds."


	3. Chapter 3

Back Home – Tales

by Warringer

The brave ship _Thunderchild_

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[BGM: Lux Aeterna]

With a distance of nearly 50 lightyears to Earth Mu Arae, G3 star not much different from Sol, just barely belonged to the Corian Expanse and with that to a piece of space not explored by Jurians or Minbari.

The planet Mu Arae b hung in space above its mother star Mu Arae. A triple system of rings surrounded the massive gas giant, one and a half times as massive as Jupiter as it moves on its orbit around Mu Arae. Two giant storms each much larger than Earth were visible, chasing each other through the atmosphere of the giant ball of gas.

Between two of the rings, still one half and a million kilometers from the outer fridges of the massive gas giant, a blue green world hung in space, just barely smaller than Earth, backing up the theories that it was possible that gas giant could have terrestrial moons.

Not having been discovered by the nearby Centauri, the world catalogized as Mu Arae c VIII, had been undisturbed for millions of years until a small pirate guild had found it. Building just a small city on its surface and placing their shipyards in orbit. But the presence of the pirates had only lasted a few decades before the pirate guild had been destroyed in 2004 by a combined action of the dreaded pirate Ryo-oh'ki and the Earth ship _USS Stingray_.

Only after the end of the Doranian War, the planet had been opened of resettlement.

Called Blackwater by its settles from Britain, the moon slowly became a thriving colony of Earth, one of the first five extrasolar settlements.

But even being a rather obscure little colony, it did not protect Blackwater from the dogs of war.

High above the earth-like moon fighters and battlecruiser analogues moved closer and closer towards the world, the natural Slipstream interference of Mu Arae c, keeping them from getting closer towards the world in slipstream.

As the ships of the Third Space invasion force moved closer towards the world, what few freighters and other private ships belonged to the settlers left the atmosphere to escape the glassing that was known to follow when the Third Spacer attacked a settled planet.

But even than fleeing their colony might not work as the Third Space ships were faster than the civilian vessels.

It was than as a jump point tore open space time, the swirling blue funnel to jump space not showing anything of the interference Mu Arae c showed towards Slipstream, and a blocky gray shape exited.

A large Union Jack, painted on the dorsal armor of the massive vessel, was visible to everyone in the yellow light of Mu Arae as it turned about and its engines began to propel it towards its opponents. Painted beneath the Union Jack was the name of the vessel, painted in a white flowery script.

It was a Warlock. HMS _Thunderchild_, moving at full acceleration to come to the rescue of the fleeing civilian ships, having been the ship that was closest to help the people of Blackwater.

Smaller shaped began to separate from the massive vessel, fighters launched by the Warlock, powerful Thunderbolt Starfuries and nimble, fast Cobras. Moving ahead of their mothership the fighters pulled accelerations that would have them engaging the Third Space in a short time, where the capital vessels would trade shots at a distance.

The twin long ranged Particle cannons of _Thunderchild_ stabbed out toward the first of the Battlecruiser analogues, punching through the hastily erected shields and searing long lines into its armor. Ending near the massive bulge that was the energy source of the massive blue armored vessel, the pulses of high energy particles sending a surge into the reactor.

The energy source pulsed once, expanding for just a moment, eating its own containment system and resulting in the destruction of the cruiser analog.

The remaining two cruiser analogs turned around, increasing their acceleration, moving towards _Thunderchild_. Their long ranged weapons spiked, beams of brilliant blue energy reaching out for _Thunderchilds_ shields, impacting and punching through the first shield layer.

Already known side effects of the Third Spacers weapons send massive feedback energies back into the projectors and shield generators, resulting in more then one short lived detonation inside the massive hull of the Warlock, damaging surrounding sections.

But Thunderchild returned fire. Her GOD cannons undamaged and her primary and secondary weapons now in optimal firing range, opened up on the next Third Space cruiser analog. Particle beams, plasma pulses and rail gun shells impacted into now fully active shields merely weakening them as the two ships continued to fire on the now damaged Warlock.

Meanwhile fighters meet. The Thunderbolt Starfuries were more manoeuvrable than the Third Space fighters, while the Vipers were faster, but the Invaders fighters were much larger and their weapons more deadly.

Where one Third Space fighter died, one Thunderbolt and two Vipers were destroyed in retaliation.

The massive dog fight was more of a sideshow as the three massive warships fired at each other.

Where the continuous fire of _Thunderchild_ slowly ate away on the shield strength of the second cruiser analog, _Thunderchild_ lost one shield layer after the other.

Aboard the civilian vessels, the people stared at their displays, most of them realizing what happened. One ofter the other people began to chant the name of the warship that had come to their rescue.

They errupted into cheers as the second cruiser analog turned into a short lived sun as its energy source lost containment.

But at the same time, _Thunderchild_ had lost its last shield layer, the last remaining enemies weapons biting down into the Warlocks armor.

The bright blue beams of the Invaders weapons raked over the thick armor, punching through it and exposing its innards to open space.

Yet, _Thunderchild_ fought on. Her engines began to glow, overcharged with energy well,m past its safety margins, pushing the ship forward with twelve gravities and towards the last remaining Cruiser analog, her last remaining weapons blazing.

Charging at the enemy, the eerie radio silence was broken by the Captain of _Thunderchild_.

"My last dying breath I spat at thee!"

Her GOD cannon firing one last time, stabbing out at the Cruiser analogs shields at short distance, the engine section of the mighty Warlock blew, pulling the massive hull to port.

Instead of just the bow, the entire port side of the defender impacted into the shield, the entire weight and velocity turning into kinetic energy enough to break through the tough, but weakened shield.

The pointed, long bow of the Cruiser analog pierced through the massive armored hull, poking out through to the other side as the massive hull of the Warlock moved closer, crumbing the smaller spikes of the Invaders hull.

One of the smaller spikes tore into one of the missile dumps, tearing it open and causing the warheads to detonate in a massive display of destructive energy.

The brave ship _HMS Thunderchild_ was destroyed in a blaze of glory, her ammo cooking off and her rectors failing, taking the last of the three attacking Cruiser analogs down with it.

Her sacrifice would be remembered, like the sacrifice of Alexander before it.


End file.
